Baker's capital plan includes $4 billion in improvements

Saturday

May 13, 2017 at 8:00 AM

By Andy Metzger State House News Service

The state's $2.26 billion fiscal 2018 capital plan focuses on maintaining and modernizing government assets and will lead to more than $4 billion in investments beginning July 1, Gov. Charlie Baker said Thursday at an event in Chelsea.

The plan includes $59.4 million for a new court facility in Lowell, $4.5 million for the state archives building in Dorchester, and $38.7 million for a number of projects, including Senate Chamber renovations, at the State House.

MassWorks, which uses infrastructure grants to spur economic development projects, receives $80 million in the plan, and the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center capital program is funded at $56 million. The plan puts $80 million toward the infrastructure program known as I-Cubed.

Standing in front of a brick hospital for veterans built in 1949, Baker said the plan includes a roughly $8 million down-payment on a $199 million long-term care project at the Chelsea Soldiers Home, which he recalled visiting many times during his years in government dating back to the 1990s.

Administration officials said they expect the new hospital building to be completed in 2020.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo of nearby Winthrop told the crowd at Thursday's announcement that the upgrade will "make it more comfortable for patients and allow staff to provide better care."

Baker said the overall plan boosts capital spending by $70 million over the fiscal 2017 plan, and will lead to more than $4 billion in investments when paired with federal, local and private funding sources. Last year's $2.19 billion capital plan was $65 million more than Baker's first capital plan.

The Legislature over the years has authorized capital spending that far exceeds the state's borrowing capacity, leaving governors and their advisers with significant power to decide which projects move forward and when. In Chelsea, DeLeo introduced Baker budget chief Kristen Lepore as "a lady who gets things done, quite frankly because she controls the money."

Lepore said the capital plan focuses on taking care of existing assets, developing the workforce, partnering with communities, improving government performance, and leveraging outside resources.

The plan earmarks $85 million for capital expenses on about 50,000 public housing units around the state. In the information technology area, the plan identifies $131.2 million for projects whose total costs reach $277 million.

The capital budget will help the financially struggling UMass Boston address its crumbling substructure, devoting $6 million for that in fiscal 2018. The Baker administration announced in April that it would provide $78 million over three years for repairs to the old garage.

The plan includes $29.6 million "to maintain and improve state-owned parks, campgrounds, pools, and rinks," and targets $39.5 million for projects totaling more than $51 million at the University of Massachusetts, including a School for Marine Science & Technology facility in New Bedford and a sciences facility in Amherst among other projects.

The parks projects include restoration of Nantasket Beach, work on Fort Warren in Boston Harbor and rehabilitation of the Blue Hills Stable to "return the property to its original use as the stable" for the Department of Conservation and Recreation Mounted Unit. The plan also puts $1.3 million towards "repairs and upgrades" of the Reggie Lewis Center at Roxbury Community College.

A Baker administration website outlines plans for an estimated $21 million upgrade to the State Police barracks on the Charles River by the Museum of Science, and the plan earmarks almost $1.5 million for that endeavor. The plan devotes $5 million to "replace a failing temporary modular structure at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute" in Shirley.

Plans to improve the Chelsea Soldiers Home were warmly received on the chilly May afternoon.

Olivia Anne Walsh, a 65-year-old Soldiers Home resident who was a U.S. Air Force ironworker in the Vietnam War, said staff and patients are "very excited" about progress on a replacement for the nearly 70-year-old hospital.

"It was state of the art then. But years have gone by," said Walsh, who said people have been talking about a new hospital for "many, many years" and the upgrade would afford patients better privacy among other improvements.